Debate on Vietnam. 1

The nature of the Vietnamese Communist Party. George Johnson and Fred Feldman

Vietnam, Stalinism and the postwar socialist revolutions. Pierre Rousset

Vietnam, Stalinism and the postwar socialist revolutions. George Johnson and Fred Feldman

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Introduction

Bob Gould

In 1973-74 some members of the Fourth International discussed the nature of the Vietnamese revolution and Communist Party. It was a discussion between people who had been deeply involved in the movement against the imperialist assault on Vietnam and who were knowledgable of Vietnam and its history.

Debate on Vietnam. 3

On the nature of the Vietnamese Communist Party. George Johnson and Fred Feldman

Vietnam, Stalinism and the postwar socialist revolutions. Pierre Rousset

Vietnam, Stalinism and the postwar socialist revolutions. George Johnson and Fred Feldman

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Vietnam, Stalinism, and the postwar socialist revolutions

George Johnson and Fred Feldman

I. Rousset’s theory

The framework of the debate

In his reply to our critical appraisal of his book Le Parti Communiste Vietnamien, Comrade Pierre Rousset presents a broad theoretical defense of his position that the Vietnamese Communist Party (VCP) is a non-Stalinist, “empirical revolutionary party”. In so doing he broadens the scope and subject of the debate considerably. He bases himself on a reading of the meaning of the revolutions that have toppled capitalism since the end of World War II and the character of the regimes that they have established (including Vietnam) that is quite different from ours; that is, the one hitherto held by the world Trotskyist movement